SASKATOON • A Saskatchewan man says he filed a human rights complaint because negative media coverage of the Confederate flag debate is discriminatory and promotes hatred.

Dale Pippin’s family is originally from North Carolina, but settled in Canada 110 years ago. He takes great pride in his Southern U.S. heritage and displays the Confederate flag on his vehicle, although he’s more reluctant to do so given the intense debate about the controversial symbol, he said.

For Pippin, the flag represents his family roots and the sacrifices his ancestors made fighting in the Confederate army during the American Civil War; for others, the flag represents a legacy of slavery and pro-racist views.

“Racism and hate have been linked to the flag for far too long and it’s incorrect,” Pippin said, noting history is filled with “bad instances” when people have linked themselves with other symbols.

Recently, the debate about displaying the flag intensified after nine people were killed at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. Photos of alleged shooter Dylann Roof posing with a vehicle with Confederate flag plates quickly circulated online.

The flag was later removed from the South Carolina state house grounds while many other jurisdictions are grappling with the same issue.

Many Americans are also re-evaluating what the flag means to them.

Mississippi football coach Hugh Freeze says he supports removing the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag.

“While I’m not a political figure, I strongly believe it’s time we move in a different direction and change the flag,” Freeze said last week before appearing at Southeastern Conference Media Days.

LIAM RICHARDS/STAR PHOENIXDale Pippin, not pictured, poses for a photograph with a replica civil war sabre and Confederate flag plate on Saturday, July 18th, 2015.

Freeze, 45, grew up in Mississippi and said he has “great appreciation” for people who have pride in the state’s heritage, but “that symbol has been hijacked by some groups that mean ill will toward some people.”

Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State have already said they support changing the state flag, which has featured the Confederate emblem since 1894.

Meanwhile, Pippin said he believes media coverage discriminates against him and others with Southern heritage. He cited television and radio broadcasts in his human rights complaint, which he said was filed July 1.

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission declined to confirm if it received the complaint

In Saskatchewan, the flag isn’t hard to spot. It’s on decals, front plates of vehicles and was easily seen at the Craven Country Music Jamboree this month, despite organizers asking people to leave it at home.

The flag has also been adopted by the Facebook group “Sask Rednecks,” which has more than 6,000 likes.

A University of Saskatchewan history professor said young people who display the Confederate flag have adopted it as part a culture of rebellion.

Keith Carlson said they are looking to stick it to authority over things like drug and alcohol prohibitions, but “they don’t understand or appreciate that it’s a horrible symbol of racial hatred.”

The rise of the flag’s popularity in rural Canada is rooted in the 1970s and 80s when it was used by country rock groups such as Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was seen as a symbol of rebellious rural culture.

“A lot of people don’t understand what the flag does symbolize,” Carlson said, noting the flag’s designer originally wanted the stars to be in one corner and to have the rest of the flag remain all white, as a symbol of the supremacy of whites over blacks.

The flag had been used as the battle flag of southern states. It was also used by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which had strong support in Saskatchewan in the 1920s, Carlson added.

He said he feels it’s necessary to educate people about the flag’s symbolism, and suggested it shouldn’t be looked at in isolation.

“Symbols are very, very powerful,” he said. “That flag is one symbol.”

Pippin said he, too, feels education is important. He wants to bring a positive image to the flag in honour of his ancestors.

He has started a blog, SouthSaskSoutherner, as part of that effort and is thinking about organizing a Confederate flag march.

“As soon as you display a flag, you are questioned about it, and you need to be prepared if you’re going to display a flag. You need to be able to explain why you are flying it and be able to remain patient and educate people as to why it’s OK to do so,” he said.

Members of the Ku Klux Klan gathered outside the South Carolina statehouse Saturday in a heated protest to oppose the removal of the Confederate flag.

But the actions of a black police officer served to drown out the message the group attempted to spread.

Leroy Smith, director of the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, was photographed helping a white protester, wearing a t-shirt with a swastika, climb the steps of the statehouse towards the shelter and water he needed to escape the grueling heat. Temperatures in Columbia, S.C. — where the statehouse is located — hit a high of 36 C Saturday.

Smith said he was surprised the photo went viral but hopes it can be used as a catalyst to end the hatred and violence in the U.S.

“I believe this photo captures who we are in South Carolina and represents what law enforcement is all about,” Smith said in a statement. “I am proud to serve this great State, and I hope this photo will be a catalyst for people to work to overcome some of the hatred and violence we have seen in our country in recent weeks.

“Our men and women in uniform are on the front lines every day helping people – regardless of the person’s skin color, nationality or beliefs.”

The moment was captured by Rob Godfrey, deputy chief of staff to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

“Not an uncommon example of humanity in SC,” Godfrey tweeted with the photo that went viral.

The post was retweeted about 4,000 times.

Haley pushed for the Confederate flag’s removal after a shooting in Charleston, S.C. — where nine people were killed by a lone gunman inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Dylann Roof, who was photographed with the Confederate flag, was charged in the Charleston deaths.

NBC reports about 50 members of the Ku Klux Klan were present at the rally waving Confederate flags and shouting obscenities. One protester reportedly carried a banner sporting a Nazi swastika. The white supremacists clashed with members of the New Black Panther Party who were at the statehouse to counter the protest.

Five people were arrested at the protests for charges of disorderly conduct, assault and breach of peace.

Photographs that appear to show the Charleston church shooting suspect holding a Confederate flag and burning an American flag appear with a racist rant on a newly uncovered website.

The purported manifesto was found on a website called LastRhodesian.com and surfaced Saturday. It’s unclear if he wrote it but the writings are in line with what Roof has told friends and what he said before allegedly opening fire in the black church Wednesday night.

Internet registry records show that the website was registered on Feb. 9 via a Russian registry service — a common tactic use by those to obscure personal details or hide who is behind any particular website.

The 60 pictures include Roof holding a Confederate flag and a close-up of a .45-calibar pistol. He is accused of using a similar handgun in the church shooting.

The nearly 2,500-word essay starts with Roof saying he was not raised in a racist home, but concluded he needed to become violent after typing “black on White crime” into Google. He says he chose Charleston because at one time it had the highest ratio of blacks to whites and white supremacist groups were not doing enough.

(Ben Torres/Getty Images)Investigators remove a body after a shooting on May 3, 2015, in Garland, Texas, at the "Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest," an anti-Islam event. The Twitter user who threatened Josh Bornstein is believed to have encouraged the shooting in Garland.

A high-profile Jewish lawyer in Australia was threatened by an ISIL affiliated spokesman, who exhorted jihadists to attack a Texas cartoon contest, after the lawyer was targeted in a defamation campaign initiated by neo-Nazis.

In late February, a group of Australian neo-Nazis on an online forum called for an “all-out war” against perceived enemies, including Melbourne lawyer Josh Bornstein. The neo-Nazis targeted Bornstein due to his support for open immigration policies and stronger hate-crime legislation.

In early March, a member of the white supremacist forum commenced an intricate plot to smear Bornstein. The perpetrator described their plan to other forum members on the hate site, stating they used a fake identity, now known to be Bornstein’s, to create a blog on the Jerusalem-based online newspaper, the Times of Israel.

The perpetrator claimed, “Thousands – potentially even millions of people – will read my blog posts thinking that I’m a Jew. Not only do they think I’m a Jew, but they think I’m a Jew with authority.” Then, they asked, “What should I write on my new Times of Israel blog?”

Over the next couple of weeks the figure behind the blog began to post content, compiled by stitching together sections of Bornstein’s authentic published work, in an apparent effort to establish credibility. The Times of Israel allows verified bloggers to post directly to the website without editor’s approval.

Bornstein remained unaware of the plot until the morning of April 10, when he woke to find himself in the middle of a raging controversy.

I felt like I was standing in an amphitheatre surrounded by a hostile and highly multicultural audience who were baying for my blood

While Bornstein slept, the perpetrator of the plot had posted a new article on the Times of Israel blog, calling for genocide against Palestinians, supported by Talmudic law. The article, which Bornstein described as “a graphically violent and racist diatribe,” was rapidly spread on social media and decried by many, including author Naomi Wolf, resulting in an online vigilante mob hunting Bornstein.

“I felt like I was standing in an amphitheatre surrounded by a hostile and highly multicultural audience who were baying for my blood. And the crowd kept growing – minute by minute,” Bornstein said in a Guardian article describing his experience.

Some immediately suspected Bornstein hadn’t been behind the article, but others were less trusting of the Times of Israel. An article published on the website in late-July 2014, claiming genocide against Palestinians was permissible, had drawn outrage and was eventually retracted. In a public apology, the publication’s editors claimed their trust had been abused, and that they would “take steps to prevent a recurrence.”

Despite these claims, the Times of Israel staff found themselves issuing another public apology less than a year later after becoming aware of the post published under Bornstein’s name.

Editors retracted the article within hours of its publication, and claimed they had been the victims of “a malicious and hateful hoax” but had “no reason to suspect this was a hoax … given that half a dozen posts were published on this blog in subsequent days, all on topic and perfectly reasonable.”

Bornstein claims this retraction, in combination with efforts from “Palestinian and other Arab activists for Palestinian statehood,” resulted in the mob dispersing within 36 hours.

But this was not the end of Bornstein’s troubles generated by the hate screed published under his name.

The article was copied to an online archive, and some terrorist supporters continued to share the post on Twitter in subsequent weeks. One of these accounts has since been connected to ISIL.

On April 29, Twitter user “Australi Witness” shared an archived version of the article and stated, “This Shaytan (devil) needs to pay.” Australi Witness attempted to find Bornstein’s address, calling for followers to ensure retribution against the wrongly targeted lawyer.

Australi Witness may be dangerous, according to Rita Katz, the executive director of terror monitoring service SITE.

Katz said, in an interview with the Age, that the Twitter user is “part of the hard core of a group of individuals who constantly look for targets for other people to attack,” and recruits for ISIL.

Australi Witness has been linked to a range of violent attacks, most recently the May 3 shooting at the “Draw Muhammad” event in Texas.

Before the event, Australi Witness tweeted, “Kuffar (unbelievers) are holding a large ‘Draw Muhammed (PBUH) event in Garland, Texas on May 3rd. Please spread to US brothers.” He also shared calls for an attack on the contest.

The suspected radical denies organizing the attack, but told the Age, “I support what our mujahideen in Texas did.”

Bornstein’s identity has since been taken again, with a fake Twitter account bearing his likeness encouraging mass violence against Arabs. Some of these messages appeared as “promoted” tweets, leading some to question Twitter’s policy for filtering what sort of messages can receive the expanded reach the service offers.

Bornstein said, in an interview with the Age, that the entire encounter has been “very unpleasant” but that “I’m still going to be writing articles and doing my best to assist people in legal cases. That’s who I am, that’s what I do; that’s my real identity.”

In a Guardian article, Bornstein expressed gratitude the neo-Nazi hate screed published under his name was so extreme, allowing him to catch its presence quite quickly.

“White supremacists don’t do nuance. For that too, I can be thankful.”

It’s an outgrowth of an ultraconservative iteration of Islam that I am uncomfortable with – and that precipitated my family’s immigration from Afghanistan. My mother was a reformer who fought for decades against such oppressive religious conservatism and I have never seen her wear anything heavier than a loose headscarf, and even then on only a handful of occasions.

But the niqab, as a symbol, is something I will defend.

It is clearly a proxy for many Canadians’ anxiety about multiculturalism and religious accommodation, especially as it relates to newcomers from Muslim-majority countries. And the vociferousness of the attacks against the niqab compel me to speak – because to stay silent on this issue is to excuse a larger climate of anti-Muslim rhetoric that is becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Related

The latest person to add his voice to to the niqab debate is Conservative MP Larry Miller, who this week demanded those who refuse to remove their veils while swearing citizenship oaths “stay the hell where they came from.”

Miller apologized once his remarks, made on a local Ontario radio show, were widely reported. But it’s hard not to see his outburst as part of a pattern.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has used strong language to denounce the niqab in citizenship ceremonies, calling it “offensive” and suggesting the garment itself is “rooted in a culture that is anti-women.”

Others in the prime minister’s inner circle have been just as forceful in their rhetoric, albeit imprecise. Defence Minister Jason Kenney tweeted misleading images of veiled girls in chains, supposedly sex slaves being sold by ISIS fighters (they actually depicted a Shia religious ceremony that re-enacts the persecution of the Prophet Muhammad’s descendants). Immigration Minister Chris Alexander sent out an email to supporters in which he confused the niqab with the hijab, the headscarf that leaves the face completely uncovered.

The sudden obsession in Ottawa with all things Islam is not happening in a vacuum.

According to a recent Ekos poll for iPolitics, 46% of Canadians now think there are “too many immigrants” coming to Canada, and almost as many, 41%, say there are too many immigrants who are visible minorities.

There has also been an apparent uptick in vandalism of Islamic community centres and other acts of intimidation. The European anti-Muslim group PEGIDA now has a foothold in Quebec, and just last month there was the outrageous example of a Montreal judge refusing to hear a woman’s case unless she removed her hijab.

Canadian Press/Ryan RemiorzThe worst part about Quebec's revived niqab ban law is that it gave the federal government cover to discuss their own.

And all that is happening against the backdrop of a controversial national security bill that will increase police powers and allow for greater surveillance of people in Canada – though, if we’re being honest, we know who the intended targets are. Even though CSIS has said white supremacist groups present a larger threat to Canadians’ safety than Muslim extremists, the prime minister still prefers to speak about the “tentacles” of the “jihadist monster.”

This is all rather depressingly familiar, since our southern neighbours went through their own spell of paranoia about terrorism and Muslim evildoers following the attacks of 9/11. It’s now obvious that Americans overreacted on those issues, touching off more than a decade of war abroad and the erosion of civil liberties at home.

That we’re now seeing a re-run of that episode in Canada, especially in an election year that was supposed to be dominated by economic matters, is alarming. A cynic might suggest focusing on a culture war and national security suits the Conservative government just fine, seeing as low oil prices and less-than-stellar employment numbers don’t reflect especially well on a party that prides itself on good economic stewardship.

Stoking mistrust of Muslims, on the other hand, seems to be a winning issue. That’s why the attack on the niqab, distasteful as the veil may be to most people, can’t go unchallenged.

A video released online Tuesday purportedly showed a Jordanian pilot captured by the Islamic State extremist group in Syria being burned to death by his captors following a weeklong drama over a possible prisoner exchange.

The military confirmed the death of Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, 26, who fell into the hands of the militants in December when his Jordanian F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate. He is the only pilot from the U.S.-led coalition to have been captured to date.

At a tribal meeting place where the pilot’s relatives have waited for weeks for word on his fate, chants against Jordan’s King Abdullah II erupted and some family members wept. An uncle shouted in Arabic: “I received a phone call from the chief of staff saying God bless his soul.”

Hundreds of protesters later took to the streets, chanting: “There is no god but God and the martyr is beloved by God.”

King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is in Washington, spoke on Jordan TV, urging all Jordanians to unite. Confirming the pilot’s death, the king said “it’s the duty of all of us to stand united and show the real values of Jordanians in the face of these hardships.”

However, in the pilot’s home village of Ai, violent protests erupted and a local government office was set on fire. Witnesses said the situation was tense and riot police were patrolling the streets.

The video appeared aimed at pressuring Jordan to leave the coalition that has been battling to roll back the Islamic State group. Jordan’s king, a close Western ally, has portrayed the campaign against the extremists as a battle over values, but the airstrikes against fellow Muslims are not popular in Jordan.

The spokesman for the Jordanian armed forces confirmed the death of the “hero pilot” and vowed revenge.

“While the military forces mourn the martyr, they emphasize his blood will not be shed in vain. Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians,” Mamdouh al-Ameri said in a statement read on Jordanian TV.

Following militant demands, Jordan’s government had said it was willing to trade Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaida prisoner, for the pilot, but that it wanted proof of life first. Al-Rishawi faces death by hanging in Jordan for her role in triple 2005 hotel bombings that killed 60 people.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the authenticity of the video, which was released on militant websites and bore the logo of the extremist group’s al-Furqan media service. The 20-minute-long video featured the slick production and graphics used in previous Islamic State videos.

The video included purported images of the pilot showing signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. At the end of the video he is purportedly shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and standing in an outdoor cage as a masked militant lights a line of fuel leading to it.

The video threatened other purported Jordanian pilots by name.

The latest video emerged three days after Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was purportedly beheaded by the militants. The fate of the two captives had been linked but a video of Goto’s purported slaying released Saturday made no mention of the pilot.

AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, FileIn this Feb. 2, 2015 file photo, a Jordanian child holds a poster with a picture of Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, with Arabic that reads, "we are all Muath," during a candle vigil in support of Japan, in front of the Japanese embassy, in Amman, Jordan.

An audio message last week, also purportedly from the Islamic State group, said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not released Thursday, without actually proposing a swap.

A scroll on Jordan TV said the pilot was killed on Jan. 3, raising questions over whether any of the hostage negotiations were sincere.

U.S. President Barack Obama said if the video is found to be authentic it would be “just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization.”

“It will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of the global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated,” he told reporters during an event at the White House.

Obama later issued a statement offering condolences, saying the pilot’s “dedication, courage, and service to his country and family represent universal human values that stand in opposition to the cowardice and depravity of ISIL, which has been so broadly rejected around the globe.”

“We now all know in Jordan, beyond any doubt, how barbaric ISIS is,” Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said. “Whoever doubted the unity of Jordan will now be proved wrong. Whoever doubts Jordan’s stern and lethal response will be proved wrong.”

The Islamic State extremist group, which controls around a third of Syria and neighbouring Iraq, has released a series of grisly videos showing the killing of captives, including two American journalists, an American aid worker and two British aid workers. Tuesday’s was the first to show a captive being burned alive.

David L. Phillips, a former State Department adviser on the Middle East, said he believes the brutal killing of the pilot could backfire, antagonizing Sunni Muslims against the Islamic State group, including Sunni tribes in Iraq.

“They need to have a welcome from Sunni Arabs in Anbar Province (in Iraq) to maintain their operations,” said Phillips, director of the Program on Peace-building and Human Rights at Columbia University.

He said the extremist group’s recent military setbacks may have fueled the killings. “They need to compensate for that with increasingly gruesome killings of prisoners,” he said.

In Washington, Jordan’s King Abdullah II met privately with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The panel’s chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., offered condolences to the king at the start of the meeting. Abdullah did not comment when reporters shouted questions as he arrived.

AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, FileIn this Jan. 3 file photo, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, the father of the Jordanian pilot 1st Lt. Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh, speaks on his mobile phone, while standing by a poster of his son at a gathering of his family in Karak, south of Amman, Jordan.

Jordan has made clear that the hostage crisis will not prompt it to leave the U.S.-led military coalition against the Islamic State group.

“We now all know in Jordan, beyond any doubt, how barbaric ISIS is,” Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani said. “Whoever doubted the unity of Jordan will now be proved wrong. Whoever doubts Jordan’s stern and lethal response will be proved wrong.”

Experts are divided over whether Jordan faces a greater threat from extremists outside its borders or from those within. In recent months, there have been signs of greater support for the Islamic State group’s ideas among Jordan’s young and poor. Last year, the government intensified a crackdown on Islamic State sympathizers and the al-Qaida branch in Syria.

Currently, about 220 Jordanians are in prison because of alleged ties to such groups, including 30 who are serving terms from three to five years, said Marwan Shehadeh, an expert on militant groups.

Krauss reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report.

The European Union, the sprawling Brussels-based super-government that presides over 28 unequal, often disorderly member countries, has two central goals: everyone uses the same currency, and citizens of any member country can live and work in any of the others.

The first policy took a serious hit when the 2008 economic meltdown left the EU’s weakest members gasping for life. Greece in particular will spend decades struggling to get over the damage. Perhaps the only thing that kept the Euro alive as a shared currency was the terror of the EU’s strongest members at the chaos that would result if it failed.

Now the second goal has been imperilled by a political broadside of equal danger. Anti-immigration parties won 140 of the 751 seats available in Sunday elections, well short of control but enough to send alarm through the entire body of European government.

The impact comes from the surprising extent of support for the hard-line parties in several important member countries. The UK Independence Party (UKIP), a mainly blue-collar grievance party whose leader prefers being photographed with a pint in hand, placed first in Britain, the first time in a century any party other than Labour or Conservative has won a national election.

That victory was compounded by a similar triumph for the National Front in France, an extremist party that equates “liberty” with fewer immigrants. Both UKIP and the National front have been accused of racist tendencies, but neither approaches the extremes of Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party of goose-stepping Greeks that won 10% of the vote and will send members to Brussels for the first time. Other anti-EU parties did well in Denmark, Hungary and the Netherlands.

Though only about four in 10 eligible voters bothered to cast a ballot, the strength of the anti-immigrant vote puts further pressure on the strained ties keeping the 28-member bloc together. Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, who had already promised to seek a better deal for Britain within the EU, now faces the fact that the winning party in the EU vote advocates immediate withdrawal. UKIP sees the EU as an intrusion on British sovereignty that leaves it at the mercy of untrustworthy foreigners and bureaucrats in Belgium.

“The whole European project has been a lie,” said UKIP leader Nigel Farage. The only way to “regain control of our borders and of immigration” is to cancel British membership, he says. UKIP policy would ban immigrants from government services – including schooling and healthcare – for five years after their arrival. Even tourists would have to show proof of health coverage before being allowed entry.

Darren Calabrese/National Post Mayor Rob Ford during a transit debate at City Hall in Toronto Wednesday, March 21, 2012.

Though 70% of seats in Brussels will remain under the control of uninspiring “centre-left” and “centre-right” parties, led by the bland prime minister of Luxembourg, the vote is evidence of the anger among voters at the failure of conventional leaders to deal with persistent economic and social issues. Unemployment across the EU remains at 11.8%, down only slightly from its high of 12%. Adding to disquiet is the enormous gap between the handful of wealthy countries and those at the bottom: Germany’s jobless rate is just 5.1%, while Spain and Greece both top 25%. In a community that was supposed to narrow such disparities the failure to match rhetoric is painfully evident, and many of those on the jobless rolls blame the influx of workers from lower-wage countries. When restrictions on Bulgaria and Romania were lifted this year, UKIP railed against “another wave of uncontrolled immigration.”

“The whole European project has been a lie,” said UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Some analysts stressed that the EU results were more a protest vote against established parties than evidence of rising intolerance. But that’s exactly where the danger lies: the longer Europe’s malaise continues, the easier extremists find it to draw new support. The Daily Mail, the second biggest-selling newspaper in Britain, warned on the eve of the vote that almost 50,000 Bulgarians and Romanians had applied to work in Britain in the first three months of the year, while the number of Romanians applying for health coverage leapt 163%.

The vote also means that when the European government next convenes, it will have a sizeable minority of members dedicating to engineering as much failure as possible. The more successful they are at disruption, the harder it becomes to reverse the discontent. European governments – from Conservatives in Britain to the Socialist government in France – brought this on themselves through their failure to deal effectively with fundamental economic problems. It’s also a warning to other governments around the world of the high cost that eventually comes from pandering to “painless” populist nostrums and economic complacency.

When nationalist goons order Jews to register with the government, horrible things tend to follow. The history of Europe is tragically clear on this point. And yet, in Ukraine, history was flipped on its head this month: A failed effort to bait the country’s Jews shows that, even in Europe’s “bloodlands” (as Timothy Snyder has famously labelled this part of the world), overt anti-Semitism is now seen as a badge of disgrace.

On April 16, three masked men approached Passover worshippers gathered outside a synagogue in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. They attempted to hand out flyers demanding that Jewish citizens register with the “Donetsk Republic commissar for nationality affairs” and pay a fee, on pain of expulsion from the breakaway pro-Russian “Donetsk People’s Republic.” The flyer’s authors justified the demand with the claim that “the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine support the [ruling] junta in Kiev and are hostile to the Orthodox Donetsk Republic and its citizens.”

Western media took the flyers at face value. (U.S. secretary of state John Kerry called them “grotesque” and “beyond unacceptable.”) And it’s easy to see why: That last bit about Ukrainian Jews being “hostile to the Orthodox Donetsk Republic and its citizens” is a pitch-perfect take on the universal theme of traditional European anti-Semitism — that Jews are rootless, untrustworthy aliens who must be publicly shamed, or worse.

Related

These themes were at the heart of the most infamous and influential anti-Semitic tract of them all — The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. As with many anti-Semitic propaganda campaigns, the real target wasn’t only the Jews: The Protocols were cobbled together by Czarist hardliners seeking to tar political reformers as pawns of a diabolical Jewish conspiracy to control the world. In the Europe of the late 19th and early 20th century, using false documents to smear your enemy as a Jew-lover was viewed as effective hardball politics.

Fast-forward to 2014, and we can observe an interesting reversal: At a press conference last week, the governor of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” denied that he or anyone around him had anything to do with the flyers — and subsequent analysis suggested that the handouts were a crude hoax. Since no one knows the identity of the masked men who tried to distribute the flyers, it is impossible to know their motivations. But the leading theory, which I find credible, is that the flyers were part of a campaign, by supporters of the regime in Kyiv, to discredit the Donetsk pro-Russian separatists as fascists and anti-Semites.

I don’t want to make too much of three masked idiots passing around crudely photocopied faux-hate literature in an obscure corner of Ukraine. But this is part of a trend: For all the warnings we hear about anti-Semitism being “on the rise,” this noxious creed never has been more disreputable in the West. Yes, there are still some geriatric neo-Nazis who act out on their sick hatreds, such as former Ku Klux Klan leader Frazier Glenn Miller. And the extreme fringes of the anti-Israel movement do sometimes cross over into bald-faced Jew-hatred. But overall, anti-Semitism is now primarily a disease that infects Muslim nations, and the Muslim communities that exist in Western nations. And even on this front, it must be said, there has been some progress on this side of the Atlantic: Mainstream Muslim groups in North America now are scrupulous about avoiding any public pronouncements that might be interpreted as attacks on Jews, something that wasn’t true before 9/11.

Like Germany, Poland and Russia, Ukraine has a long history of violent anti-Semitism. Jew hatred is not extinct in that country, and likely never will be. But it counts as progress that political opportunists in that country now view being an anti-Semite as more disgraceful than being an anti-Semite’s quarry.

National Post

jkay@nationalpost.comjonkay
— Jonathan Kay is Managing Editor for Comment at the National Post, and a Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.